Terricon-2025: The Heartbeat of Dance in the Heartland of Belarus

Terricon-2025: A Celebration of Dance in Soligorsk

On the last weekend of October, the mining capital of Belarus, Soligorsk, hosted the fourth International Dance Art Festival and Competition, “Terricon.” This year, the dance forum set a new record with 715 participants!

The Birth of a Dance Festival

The idea of hosting a choreographic festival in Soligorsk was conceived by Vadim Matantsev, the leader of the renowned amateur dance ensemble “Suzor’e.” With a strong local dance collective, a modern concert venue (the Palace of Culture), and sponsorship from local companies (with “Belaruskali” as the general sponsor), the festival took off to a great start. Today, Belarusian collectives, frequent participants of the festival, praise “Terricon” as the best in its category, highlighting its excellent organization, strong material base, and high professional level of participant selection.

Growing Interest and Participation

Interest in the festival grows each year, along with the number of participants flocking to Soligorsk. This year, “Terricon-2025” saw 27 collectives from Belarus and Russia presenting 131 performances to the jury. A total of 715 contestants participated! The majority of performances were in contemporary choreography (51), variety (41), folk-stage (13), and stylized folk dance (8). Most participants came from Minsk and Soligorsk (hosting such a high-level festival boosts dance development in the city and improves performance levels), as well as Polotsk, Gomel, Rechitsa, Pinsk, Baranovichi, Grodno, Stolbtsy, and Rostov-on-Don, Russia. Notably, the choreographic group of the folk song and dance ensemble “Don” received a special jury prize in the “Preservation of National Cultural Traditions” category.

Preserving National Dance Traditions

Founded by an ensemble specializing in folk dances (the Soligorsk ensemble “Suzor’e”), the “Terricon” festival is deeply committed to preserving national folk dance traditions. A separate segment of the festival is dedicated to collectives performing folk dances. This year’s special guest was the renowned amateur collective of the Republic of Belarus, the dance ensemble “Kryzhachok,” which gave a grand concert for festival guests. The artistic director of the ensemble and ballet master-repetiteur of the State Academic Dance Ensemble of the Republic of Belarus, Igor Muzalevsky, joined the jury alongside Sabina Mozgovaya (Master of Arts, lecturer at the Choreography Department of BSUIR) and Russian pedagogue and choreographer Nikita Kharitonov.

State-of-the-Art Festival Venue

Participants commend the high level of technical equipment at the festival venue. The lighting, sound, and stage quality at “Terricon” allow for the presentation of the most innovative dance performances in the best light. The audience hall during the final gala concert of Terricon is always full – the warmth and openness of the Soligorsk public to new ideas is palpable from the stage! This is another factor that makes Soligorsk a bright spot on the map of the festival dance movement in Belarus: receiving diplomas and cups on the stage of “Terricon-2025,” participants make plans to participate in the festival next year!

Triumph at Terricon-2025

This year, the Center for Contemporary Choreography “Smart Dance” from Minsk, led by choreographer Alexandra Buyalskaya, triumphed at the competition. The collective presented a record number of performances and won the most first and second prizes, as well as special awards for “Best Solo Performance” (Yana Zenkova) and “Best Duet” (Ariadna Kiseleva and Pavel Krasovsky). In total, nine special awards were presented at “Terricon-2025” in various categories.

A Unique Prize and Educational Value

The love and pride for their city is reflected not only in the festival’s name (terricons are one of the symbols of Soligorsk: these are artificial mountains, dumps of processed natural materials extracted from salt mines) but also in the award given to the competition winners. The main prize, Terricon Prix, is a large fragment of potash salt mined in this unique region of the country. Each festival participant receives a free tour of the Soligorsk terricons of “Belaruskali.” This highlights the educational and patriotic value of the “Terricon” festival: each participant takes away not only impressions from the dance competition but also knowledge about Soligorsk and the mining region of Belarus. And for the winner, it is a special honor to receive a piece of the main wealth of this land, a crystal of the world-famous Belarusian potash salt.

For more information, visit the official website.